Granada

We went to Granada for 4 days. It's a huge city. The older part is up on a mountain and down below is a sprawled out city. The roads are made with rocks and pebbles and some have designs in them. There's a huge castle called the Alhambra up top of the city built into a ridge. Behind the Alhambra in the rolling hills, the Gypsies built cave homes. They've created small communities and sell homemade items in the streets. There's a lot if beautiful Muslim architect all throughout the city. In the Muslim quarters, they have shops filled with bright colors of ceramics, clothes, leather purses, spices, loose leaf teas, and much more. There's delicious restaurants and hookah bars. Granada is one known for it's tapas. Tapas are tiny appetizer size. Simple and delicious. The deal is, if you order any alcoholic beverage, your served a tapa. If you have 4 people, sometimes you only get 2 tapas for the table. 3 is the magic number, then you get 3 tapas. It's fun to have one drink, eat the tapas, then move into a new place. That way you can sample all kinds of different tapas. A lazy tapa is potato chips and olives.
We stayed in a Airbnb right in the old part of the city. We got a 1 bedroom with a queen size bed, a twin bed, and a couch that turns into a bed for 30 euros. On Airbnb you get the whole place to yourself. Their usually someone's vacation home or just used for Airbnb. We've stayed in beautiful places for cheap. Especially for 4 of us, it's a better deal than getting a hostel. Plus you get a kitchen that's usually stocked with spices and your basic needs. A washing machine and sometimes a bath tub to relax in come with most all the places too. Airbnb is a website anyone can use all over the world to find a place to stay.
We did a lot of walking around Granada while checking everything out. Unfortunately for us, it rained every day we were there. Our shoes were soaked but we had rain jackets on. We hiked up in the windy road neighborhoods and saw beautiful views of the city. There's lookout points all over hidden in between the streets. We tried to get tickets to go inside the Alhambra but it was sold out for the next 3 months. Who knew to book it that far in advance. Missed out on that one. We checked out the vintage thrift shops, record stores that had tapes, books, old school posters in it, English book store, and second hand shops.
Our friend Judith that we met at Isla Bonita, met us in Granada. It was fun catching up with her and hanging out. Joe's friend Mathew showed up the next night and met us so we had a full house. We went out and checked the nightlife scene. There was some live music at a bar but it wasn't all that great. We left and hit up a hostel that has a full on bar down below with cushy chairs n couches. Our tapas were a cream base with mushrooms and chunks of ham, served with bread. Good music playing and fun times. We stayed out late and had a blast.
Joe and I had a day together. We went to cathedrals, art galleries, and cruzed the city. Somehow we kept going in circles amongst the windy little roads. We sat in cafés and ate pastries while gawking at the beautiful sites around. In the meantime, Seth and Chris went on a huge hike up a steep mountain behind the Alhambra. They discovered a cavern and walked, then crouched down into a long cave that led into complete darkness. Chris only had his cellphone light so they didn't go all the ways down.
On the day we had to leave, the sun came out and so did the buskers. Music of all kinds played throughout the streets. The Gypsies selling their art and handmade items at all the lookout points. Tourists everywhere. Fun to see the city liven up with the sun out. We had an amazing time in Granada minus the rain.

Field Trips

Last Friday Penny took us on a field trip to a beach town called Almunecar. We met her friend there who's starting a website of "World Schooling." The website connects traveling families together. They do meet ups in her home town every Tuesday. When we travel, we can see if other world school families are nearby to hook up for the day. Pretty neat for us. That way Seth can hook up with kids his age through the web and in person. It's called World Travel, aka homeschooling. You can't use the word homeschooling here in Spain since it's illegal to be homeschooled.
We got to see an amazing Flamenco show at a restaurant on the beach. A man played the guitar, another beat a box drum, a lady singer, and two women who danced. The Flamenco dancing is intense. It involves different clapping techniques as well as stomping on a wood platform. Each woman builds herself up through dancing faster n faster. Then about has a orgasim is the best way I can describe it. Very passionate and sexy with sweating it all out in the end. One woman even did the Flamenco dance with the traditional Spanish fan. The show lasted about 3 hours with breaks in between. The deal is that you come in and buy tapas and drinks then the show is included. It was a blast. After the show, we went to another beach town close by. We busked along the boardwalk for a hour and made back our money we spent at the Flamenco show. Fun times on our field trip day.
On Saturday night, Joe's friend Mathew played bass at a art gallery opening. The art was all in black and white with tons of eyeballs, butts, and boobs. She created lots of interesting and feminist art. I enjoyed seeing something different in Spain. The musicians were a blast. One lady sang and played the guitar, another woman, belted out songs, 2 guys played soft jazz, and Mathew played the bass with loop pedals. Tons of people showed up to the art opening. So many people that there wasn't enough room for everyone.
We played at the Thursday market in Orgiva. Penny set up her Guatemalan stall, Joe and Chris played music, and Seth and I sold some art. The Orgiva market is interesting since they have a artisinal side to it. The Spanish markets usually have clothes (new and used), shoes, spices, sausages, cheeses, nuts, fruits, and candies. Fun to see a different style market and for me to chat with other artists in the area. We had a fantastic day. Sun shinning with lots of people out n smiles.
We took an adventure walk down by the river. There's 2 different communities further down that in the woods by the river. There's a boat that's a free thrift store on land right by a rope swing. It was neat seeing everyone's home done up in a different style. Some motor homes, some dome homes, hand built out of wood, all sorts. Most you can only get there by walking. In and around Orgiva is different kinds of community living. We got lost on our way back and saw an ancient olive orchard. The trunks to the trees were amazing. One even looked like a mans face in it. That's why it's fun to get lost. Never know what you will discover.
This past week we finished up all of our painting job. We happened to come across 6 kittens in Penny's bodega (storage space) while cleaning it out. A stray cat had snuck into the bodega and had 6 healthy kittens maybe a week before we found them. Glad we're traveling, otherwise their so cute that I want one.
We took Penny's camper up to Capileira, which is further up in the mountains. Such a beautiful, old, tiny town. We heard there was a market there on Mondays. It was the tiniest market ever for there was one guy selling fruits n veggies. Penny and us set up to make a scene. Lots of tourists especially the grey haired crowd. The grey haired crowd is the old English people on holiday. Nice people n all but tight in tipping. Hate to say that but it's true coming from other buskers. Joe and Chris lightened up the whole town with their music. Capileira is known for weaving blankets and rugs by using an old weaving loom. The town is built into the mountain with tiny walk ways. In the middle of the walk ways is water ways for when it rains to collect the water at the bottom of the town. They are also known for their delicious chocolate. I indulged in a salted dark chocolate bar and a honey milk chocolate bar. Joe and Chris got the dark chocolate bar with chillies. I had a blast exploring around.
We left Penny's house after 2 weeks of helping her and she helped us. We headed right down the road to her friend Glenna's house to watch her dog while she goes back home to Whales. It works out for us because we're trying to save enough money to go to Granada for 4 days. I've always wanted to go to Granada ever since I lived at Isla Bonita. From Orgiva, it's only 1 hour away by bus. With us working at Penny's during the days, we couldn't hit up all the markets around. Now we're at a beautiful house with olive trees all around and a river. On Glenna's property is an abandoned house. I love walking through abandoned places. In the attic was an old iron bed from forever ago. We just have to keep an eye on the dog so we can busk every day and back at night. The holidays are finally over after 2 weeks. We like it here in Orgiva but it sure is small. Going into town, we see the same people at all the functions. It has been a great place to meet all kinds of fun people. The view you wake up to is amazing. Great vacation spot for us but couldn't live or stay too long.

Help Ex

We met a lady named Penny at Mathew and Heather's house. She was there enjoying their blow up hot tub. Penny has lived in Orgiva for about 2 years now. She's from Ireland and bought a house right outside of Orgiva in town called Ticola. It just so happened that she was looking for some Help Ex/ Work Away helpers to do some gardening and painting. That was right up our alley so we took on the job. Help Ex/ Work Away is a deal where you work 4 hours a day in exchange for food and a place to stay. Penny took us in right away for another storm was on it's way. Penny's house is beautiful with her place upstairs and a guest spot downstairs. Downstairs also is a spot where she opens up a shop and sells items that she brings over from Guatemala. All the stuff is full of color. Our place was cozy with a wood stove and kitchen. It was perfect for us. We each got our own sleeping space. It poured for the whole weekend with sounds of explosives due to the Christo celebration downtown. The explosives went off all during the day and night. Orgiva spent 20,000 euros on the explosives. It's one of their biggest holidays here. We stayed inside enjoying the cozy wood stove and cooking up delicious meals. We did however, on Sunday set out to play music and sell art in a spot called "The Grove." It's a part of Orgiva with Eucalyptus trees all around and a bar/cafe outdoors. The event is called " The Rastro" where people sell used items and handmade stuff. We heard it was cancelled due to the rain but wanted to check the spot out anyway. There was about 10 venders in which case there's usually 100. The sun came out for a bit and I had my biggest selling day yet. We had fun meeting all different kinds of people. Lots of them loved my hand made things which made my day. The Rastro goes on every other Sunday so we were stoked we hit it up.
Monday, we started working on Penny's yard by picking all of her olives out of the tree. Then we did gardening and made her place weed free. Penny held a thrift store by donation for her singing group that she's in. The group is called "The Singing Song Birds." Joe and Chris played music outside on Penny's patio that over looked onto the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains. I had a great time meeting people and enjoying delicious homemade cake. I even saw Siriya there who's 82 years old. I met her earlier on my way into town a couple of days before while trying to find our way to Mathew and Heather's place. We were lost and asked her for directions but she too had just arrived to Orgiva a couple of days before us. I had a long chat with Siriya on how she is 82 years old and traveling the world by herself. At 81 she walked 295 kilometres through the Camino de Santiago that took her 40 days. Siriya has published 4 books about her travels. One of them she gave to me called "My Camino @ 81 Year's. It's Never Too Late." She's a real inspiration. I took a picture of us to never forget your never too old or it's never too late to travel. It was amazing meeting Siriya. She has such a big smile and is full of life.

Orgiva, Spain

We awoke the next morning to ducks quacking, birds whistling, and the sound of the river. The park had picnic benches, a fire pit with cozy chairs around it, a steel swinging bridge for pedestrians, trees to hang our hammock, and a river. We even had the whole place to ourselves. It was one of my favorite camp spots. Our bicycle ride into Orgiva was all up mountains. I walked most of the way. While walking I saw a line of 22 caterpillars crossing the road, all in a line. They were yellow and black, fuzzy n cute. Later that day, I learned they're poisonous and you can even die from them. The caterpillar will sting you if you touch it. Our friends in Orgiva have a puppy who got stung by one of them and lost a portion of his tongue. We were warned about them right away since it's their season. Getting back to it, the last 4 kilometres into Orgiva is breathtaking. From atop in the mountains you can see a view over to the Sierra Nevada mountains covered in snow. Orgiva is nestled below with mountains. Surrounding it, is a river at the bottom. Tons of olive trees, orange trees, and lemon trees. There is a few smaller towns higher up in the mountains.
We stayed at Mathew and Heather's house who lives in a neighborhood close to the river. Joe knows them from Portland, Oregon. They moved to Spain about a year ago and love it in Orgiva. We made it to their house before another storm hit. We set up our tents on their back porch area in the distance. It poured down hard our first night there. Our tent started to flood with water . I felt it since the bottom of my sleeping bag was wet. Then I noticed under my blow up sleeping mat was also wet. I gathered up my belongings and put them underneath the covered porch area. During all this, I kept trying to wake up Joe but he turned over and tried to sleep through it all. I on the other hand, put 4 chairs next to each other underneath the covered patio area. I slept there with one arm hanging down for the chairs weren't quite big enough. Luckily I have a Artic Pod sleeping bag and it's long so I didn't feel the dampness and slept most of the night feeling toasty. The next day was sunny so we checked out the town of Orgiva in hopes of playing at the market. As we walked into town, up a stream and over a bridge, we saw explosives hanging on lines of wire all strung up. It was 1000 explosives and people were gathered all around. There were police everywhere and a couple of fireman. We found out it was the beginning of a Spanish holiday called Christo. At noon, all of the explosives went off in waves starting at the far end and worked their way forward. We were right with all the people. It was the loudest thing I've ever heard in my life that I even covered my ears. Later I found out by covering your ears is a insult to the festivities. Who knew. Flashes of light with tons of smoke followed by tiny pieces of paper flying everywhere. It was so intense. Shortly after, the church by all this going on was let out. All the towns people were dressed up and left immediately to go to all the bars around. The market was cancelled due to all the festivities.

Motril

We woke up to what felt like a hurricane in our tent. Super high winds, that our tent was leaning into our faces. I thought it might even brake at any moment. Clear skies so we struggled to get to Motril with the high winds against us the whole way. One big hill to get out of Callahonda, then a flat ride into Motril which is a city. Bigger than I thought. The winds chilled out some so Joe busked in the streets while Seth and I checked the city scene out. Felt good to be in a city again. Motril is big but not too big. Just the right size. Lots of shopping, bakeries, walkways, and no graffiti. It was pleasant not to see the city full of graffiti. Most Spanish towns and cities are full of garbage and not good graffiti. People just graffiti their names everywhere and lots of pictures of dick and balls for some reason. The trash scene in Spain is horrible. Trash is everywhere you look. Mostly plastic. Plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic plates, anything plastic ends up on the ground. It doesn't make sense because every town and city has plastic recycling all over. They have containers for glass and the rest like cans, tinfoil, plastic, milk cartons, go in the other container. You'll have a beautiful neighborhood with a empty lot in between and the space is full of trash. You think the neighbors would keep it clean to make their place look good, but no.
Later on we found a motocross arena to camp in. It was vacant and crazy. It had about 8 different spots outside. All with a DJ area, food area, beer serving spot, and stripper poles. There was 2 arena's and tons of party spots. Definitely looks like it was a fun time when it was up and running. Oh, I can't forget, even a place to drop your kids off at while you go party.
We headed to the Motril market the next morning. We were all super excited to do another market and it was a big blow. Seth and I didn't sell anything and Joe and Chris made the lowest they ever have. Just enough to cover our cafés that we had. The people were all locals and no tourists. Being all locals, I don't think they liked us for they looked at us like tourists in which you got the vibe that they didn't like us even being there. All the people looked depressed and we were there with big smiles. Then I got a flat tire and huge headache. It was one of those mornings. The sun shining with winds picking up. We are headed to Orgiva and rode a freeway for a bit with of course the winds against us.
Our day turned around as we headed into the mountains. To our surprise, it was flat riding, no wind, sun was hot, and breathtaking mountain views all around us. We found a beautiful campsite at a park. First thing, we jumped in the river water to clean ourselves and felt fantastic but freezing.

Rainstorms

Today is full on rain with high winds. We went back to camp in the ravine behind the town of Calahonda. Chris and Seth have the same tent from Decathalon which holds up really well in the wind and rain. Joe and I however, have a 300$ tent from REI that's 3 years old. Our tent does good in the wind but not the rain. Luckily for us, we found a huge roll of plastic in a dumpster near by. We syran wrapped our tent and bicycles and stayed dry all night. It looked like we got into a fight with syran wrap everywhere. I didn't get much sleep though. Our tent was so noisy with the sound of plastic blowing super hard in the wind all night.
I've been pretty content in my tent all day. I got high and made crafts throughout the day. Peacock earrings have been a huge success. I made 5 more pairs since I've almost sold out. Each pair is unique in it's own way. I also made a leather pouch for coins with a key ring inside. I fastened Velcro up top with a feather across the stitching and sewed on a relic symbol that I had from a necklace.
Seth has been busy watching movies and having time pass him by. He went into town with Joe to a café and got WiFi for a few hours to catch up on school work. Joe on the other hand, hates cold and wet weather. He's been miserable all day just looking for something to do. These storms one by one tends to get to you after awhile. Especially when you live outdoors like we do. Chris is like me in a way. He's been busy in his tent playing guitar all day. Coming up with new songs. It's been nice listening to him while I'm in my tent. At least I had live music all day. The weather hasn't let up at all. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm. We're all looking forward to the weather clearing up and moving on out of this place.

Meeting Generous People

We rode from La Rabita to Calahonda on a hot sunny day. A few hills but not many. We found a tiny town in between and made lunch on the boardwalk. It was so hot out that we decided to jump in the ocean. The boardwalk was empty so I stripped down completely nude and jumped in. It was freezing cold since it's still winter. It was so revitalizing, I needed a cigarette afterwards. We washed our chonees (underware) and socks in the ocean then hung them out to dry on our bicycles. Dried in no time for how hot it was. Afterwards, we pressed on. We pushed ourselves too far. Only said 7 kilometres to Calahonda so we thought no big deal. It was 7 kilometres up hill on the N-340 with high winds. I walked and cried almost the whole way. My legs were done. My arms toast. I have what they call carpal tunnel in both arms. A few minutes into cycling and my hands fall asleep. I take turns riding with one hand and switch off n on to get the feeling back in them. When I'm going up hill especially in the wind, my arms ache so much that I have to take breaks. Here lately we've been riding in heavy winds. My arms aren't getting any relax times at all. I've been going on 3 days now with barely any sleep at night due to my shoulders being in pain.
We made it slowly but surely due to me, to Calahonda right before the rain hit again. We made it through the "Beast From The East" storm last week. Now we have another storm coming in now. We're sitting under a shelter at a abandoned house on the beach with a couple from Sweden who's in a caravan. Playing music as it pours, while fixing a guy's slipper for exchange of a BBQ dinner. Ways to wait out a storm. We just need to find shelter tonight for the storm should go on for 2 more days.
The couple from Sweden cooked us up a delicious BBQ. We had chorizo sausages, hot dogs, potatoes, salad, and bread. I don't even remember the last time we had BBQ on a grill. The guy also gave Joe 5 euro's for fixing his slipper and bought a leather bracelet from me. On top of that they donated a propane tank for our stove. We were talking about how hard it is to get a Primus gas tank. In Spain, we can only purchase one at a store called Decathalon. It's a chain that carries sporting goods. From low end to high end items. The couple made our day. They even topped us off with wine, chocolate, Swedish coffee, and gingerbread cookies. We never even knew their names but super generous people. Never know what will come of your day. Thanks again you two.